China, US can work out differences
World needs the strength, resources of the two powers through generations of bilateral relations
US President Richard Nixon’s trip to China in February 1972 was nothing short of a diplomatic breakthrough in global relations. At the time of a bipolar world during the Cold War, the visit effectively reached across the aisle and forged a new bridge in a world divided by ideologies.
The visit that took place on a cold overcast winter’s day brought a warm friendship between two great nations.
There was great anticipation and excitement between the two leaders to establish official personal contact. This was a relationship with common strategic interests in buffering against a common Cold War adversary.
Before this interaction, the leaders of both countries had not met since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
The eventful meeting took place in Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s residence which was filled with books and documents. In this humble but intellectual setting, the normalization of contemporary Sino-US ties was born and it shook the world. Nixon himself called the meeting the “week that changed the world”.
In the aftermath of Nixon’s visit, television images showed the US president at the Great Wall, and other facets of China which US audiences had never seen before due to the disconnection of ties after 1949.
The moving images of China on US television newscasts must have been dramatic and riveting to watch. And the US viewers’ Chinese counterparts caught narratives of the same visit on radio and in print in the People’s Daily.
Nixon’s handshake with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, which Nixon characterized as one that “stretches out across the Pacific Ocean in friendship”, was one of these iconic moments captured on film.
At the formal dinner hosted by Zhou in the Great Hall of the People, broadcast in real time on the US morning news hour, the People’s Liberation Army military band belted out songs like America the Beautiful while Nixon was fed a multiple-course meal punctuated with Chinese-style toasting.
Many saw the Sino-US rapprochement as contributing to eventually ending the Cold War, leading to globalization. The moment was opportune as both needed the other to hedge against a common rival.
But geopolitical implications may not be as important as pragmatic ones. Most importantly, it opened the path for the peoples of China and the US to meet and interact.
Some of the most brilliant minds from the two countries exchanged innovative ideas, some of the world’s best sportspersons from both countries played sports starting with “ping-pong diplomacy”, and many ordinary people at street level on both sides were exposed to the rich cultures that both countries had to offer even as they began to influence each other.
It opened the eyes of the peoples in both countries to look beyond the ideological and security lens, look past their ideas of exceptionalism and see each other as fellow human beings with similar economic needs, aspirations for progress and optimism for the future.
The idea of opening up the Chinese market was a powerful economic motivator for the two countries to make contact with each other. US exports to China would eventually make many US companies and entrepreneurs prosper. US support also saw the entry of China into the world economy, global financial institutions and international organizations.
Nixon’s visit and the successive bilateral ties that followed also facilitated Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms.
In many ways, despite the cyclical geopolitical and political swings in ties (something natural in the bilateral relations of any two great powers), the economic institutions of both countries continue their pragmatic dealings in an intertwined world that prefers stable relations between the two economic powers rather than disruptions to the global trading regime. Even when adjustments have to be made, those adjustments should be negotiated carefully.
Statecraft is ultimately about managing both friendship and rivalry. Managing differences in the security and economic realms between two great powers is a necessity.
Generations of Chinese and US leaders have worked hard to put the bilateral relations on a stable footing. The elites in both countries have brilliant statespersons that, in the past, have found pragmatic ways to accommodate their countries’ needs in the international community. That adjustment is constant and ongoing.
Despite challenges, generations of US presidents found ways to reach out to the Chinese people. Jimmy Carter’s welcome for Deng, Ronald Reagan’s visit to the Great Wall, George H. W. Bush’s strong understanding of China, Bill Clinton’s landmark visit to Hong Kong, George W. Bush’s attendance at the Beijing Olympics, Barack Obama’s visit to Beijing, Donald Trump’s welcome at Mar-a-Lago and Joe Biden’s
Lunar New Year greetings — these were all symbolic outreaches from US political leaders to the representative of the Chinese people.
In the same way, Chinese leaders returned their symbolic gestures. Deng wearing a cowboy hat, Jiang Zemin’s retreat at Houston, Hu Jintao’s speech at Yale and Xi Jinping’s reunion with old friends in Iowa were all human touches to state diplomacy.
Undoubtedly, China and the US will learn to work out their differences again as the world now faces a common enemy. The resources and strengths of the Chinese and US economies are looked upon as the engines of growth to bring the world out from a post-pandemic downturn and into a sustainable economic recovery. Their resources are needed to bring an end to the current pandemic as it transitions to an ‘endemic’.
The world also needs China and the US to heal the planet and fight the effects of climate change. These are pragmatic issues that they can work on to mitigate inevitable rivalries between great powers.